This Southwestern pasta salad with avocado, black beans, and lime dressing is one of my new favorites. It’s not only super easy to make, but also healthy. It’s a great addition to any BBQs and potlucks!
Vegan Pasta Salads
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you probably know that I’m a HUGE pasta fan. I absolutely can’t get enough of pasta and there are just sooo many delicious vegan pasta recipes. Now that it’s finally getting warm outside, I just had to try some new vegan pasta salads.
This Southwestern pasta salad was my favorite! I usually make an easy vegan pasta salad with Italian dressing, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and artichokes. This is the usual pasta salad I bring to BBQs and birthday parties.
Sometimes I also make a vegan pasta salad with pesto or my California pasta salad. But it’s so nice to try something new once in a while. And I’ll definitely make this vegan Southwestern pasta salad more often now. It’s just SO simple and yummy!
What You’ll Need for this Vegan Southwestern Pasta Salad
The ingredient list for this pasta salad is not too long. You can find all of the ingredients in any regular grocery store.
You need:
- farfalle
- black beans
- corn
- cherry tomatoes
- avocado
- green onions
- cilantro
- fresh lime juice
- cumin
- paprika powder
- white wine vinegar
- agave
- garlic
- salt and pepper
As always, you can find a printable version of the recipe in a separate recipe box at the end of this post.
Southwestern Pasta Salad – Recipe Tips
I used farfalle, but you can actually use almost any kind of pasta you want. It also works great with fusilli.
If you don’t like cilantro, you could also sub it with parsley or just leave it out. Maybe add one or two additional green onions if you leave out the cilantro.
Dressing for Southwestern Pasta Salad
For the dressing, I used fresh lime juice, olive oil, cumin, paprika powder, white wine vinegar, a little splash of agave, garlic, and of course salt and pepper.
I think the salad tastes best when you let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours.
What’s you favorite vegan pasta salad? Do you prefer creamy vegan pasta salads with mayonnaise or Mediterranean or Mexican salads? I hope you like this vegan Southwestern pasta salad as much as we do around here. Let me know if you give it a try.
If you’re looking for more vegan pasta salads, also check out my Greek pasta salad or my California pasta salad. Or have a look at my roundup of 15 amazing vegan pasta salad recipes for even more pasta salad ideas!
Have a great start into the new week, everyone!
Sina -xx
Southwestern Pasta Salad (vegan)
Ingredients
For the vegan Southwestern pasta salad:
- 12 oz farfalle pasta
- 1 heaped cup black beans (canned)
- 1 1/2 cups corn
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut into halves
- 1 orange bell pepper, cut into stripes
- 1 avocado, cut into medium-sized chunks
- 3 green onions, cut into rings
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)
For the lime dressing:
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika powder
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1 splash agave
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
- black pepper
- salt
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Once cooked, rinse with cold water and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine all ingredients for the dressing. Add the ingredients for the pasta salad and stir well. Let the salad sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. Enjoy!
I actually made this & it was a hit!!! However, instead of making the dressing, I used Olive Garden’s Signature Dressing :)
Great recipe
Second time making this recipe for when my 5 year old friend comes over for a little play date, and us Mama’s get time to enjoy eating this and making some arts and crafts.
I ran out of peppers this time so I’m adding in an extra avocado😘
Great recipe, but you know pasta isn’t vegan, right? Pasta contains egg.
Hi Katie,
Luckily most packaged pasta brands are 100 % vegan. :-) However, sometimes “fresh” pasta contains eggs. But I use packaged pasta (like spaghetti, rotini, fettuccine etc.) for all of my vegan pasta recipes. Hope that helps!
Seriously? I’ve been vegan over ten years and finding vegan pasta is as easy as walking into any grocery store on earth. Literally.
I made this with Tinkyada gluten free spiral pasta and doubled the dressing. It was simple to make, very fresh and attractive – and delicious! I took it to a potluck and it was a big hit.
I made this today.. It is fabulous! I tripled the dressing recipe though.
I love bow-tie pasta. It gives that extra pasta punch with the thickness, and I’m all about extra pasta punch. We had burritos yesterday, so we have all the ingredients on hand for today!
I just made this today for a family gathering. I can’t wait to taste it. Thank you.
This was perfect! Great for vegans or non-vegans. We followed the recipe except for the agave bit in the dressing– we loved the tanginess without it. Some of us added hot sauce to it– excellent. Thank you!